Month: July 2021

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  With an MSRP of $3,959,900, the Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport is the most expensive car we've ever tested at Ars. [credit: Jonathan Gitlin ]

I'm not sure anything can adequately prepare you to drive a modern Bugatti. If the thought of more than a megawatt of power under your right foot isn't daunting enough, there's the price tag. The Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport that we tested goes for $3,959,000. All press test drives require the presence of a chaperone—in our case, the affable Butch Leitzinger, one of a handful of racing drivers that Bugatti employs for this reason.

In fact, the car is so far out of the normal frame of reference that it's perhaps even more daunting to write about than to drive, as evinced by the fact that it has taken me many weeks to properly marshal these words.

At least there's no 300 mph (405 km/h) top speed to worry about. Topping out at 218 mph (350 km/h) means the Chiron Pur Sport is actually the slowest car Bugatti has made since its (second) resurrection in 1998. In terms of top speed, that is. Because it's also probably the quickest car Bugatti has ever made in terms of acceleration, sacrificing a bit of Vmax for even more brutal acceleration. No pressure, then.

Enlarge (credit: Google Play)

Earlier this month, Google was sued by dozens of state attorneys general over its Play Store policies. Just over a week later, the company is essentially delaying the enforcement of one of its most significant upcoming changes: a decree that all Play Store apps must use Google's in-app billing or face a ban. Developers can now request a six-month extension to the deadline.

Back in September 2020, Google announced a crackdown on violations of its in-app billing rules. The Play Store rules have long said that apps must use Google's billing system for in-app purchases (so that Google gets a cut), but many apps just ignored this rule without repercussions. Last year's announcement said that this practice would end by September 30, 2021, and all in-app purchases—including subscriptions from the likes of Netflix and Spotify—would need to run through Google.

Late Friday, Google posted an update, saying, "After carefully considering feedback from both large and small developers, we are giving developers an option to request a 6-month extension, which will give them until March 31, 2022 to comply with our Payments policy." Google doesn't mention the antitrust lawsuits in its blog post, instead pitching this delay as a solution to an engineering problem. Even with a one-year notice of the deadline, Google claims that the pandemic is making it difficult for developers to switch to Google's in-app billing system on time:

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Pool)

President Joe Biden and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy spent the last several days hammering social media companies for their platforms’ roles in spreading misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.

“They’re killing people,” Biden said, when asked about the role of social networks in the spread of misinformation. “Look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated. They’re killing people.” His comments came after Facebook reportedly stonewalled the White House. For weeks, officials unsuccessfully petitioned Facebook to share details about how it is fighting vaccine misinformation on its platforms, according to a report in The New York Times.

The assault continued on Sunday when Murthy appeared on CNN. “These platforms have to recognize they’ve played a major role in the increase in speed and scale with which misinformation is spreading,” he said. And White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki faulted Facebook last Thursday for the pace of its moderation. “Facebook needs to move more quickly to remove violative posts,” she said. “Posts that will be within their policies’ removal often remain up for days. That's too long. The information spreads too quickly.”